


Chimera

by phoebesmum



Category: Sports Night
Genre: Gen, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-20
Updated: 2009-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-03 10:58:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoebesmum/pseuds/phoebesmum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan's relationships never last. Maybe his perfect woman really is Miss Piggy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chimera

**Author's Note:**

> Written January 2006. This needs explanation, because there are Muppets in it and, as most people know, I don't share fandom's general, frankly bizarre, love of Muppets. I think it's an age thing. Anyway. So, that week's SN100 challenge was 'silver/gold'. And all that came into my mind was Ron Silver and Louise Gold. Who does Muppet voices. And ... yeah. It's not a drabble either. I can't help it. Ron Silver does not appear.

Women come and go in Dan's life. Mostly, or so it seems to Casey, go. He doesn't even bother to learn their names any more - hell, half the time he doesn't even listen, he knows the routine off by heart. Danny falls hard, almost every time and, inevitably, he gets hurt. He always seems to bounce back eventually - maybe a little too easily, maybe the guy has a real commitment problem - but then again, that may well be a good thing. If he let all this rejection get to him, Dan would pretty much be a basket case by now. As it is, Casey knows that in a week or so, maybe a month, he'll be fine. But tonight is the first night, and so there must be the time-honoured ritual of beer and commiseration, in which it is Casey's job to be supportive and, usually, also to buy the beer.

"She just wasn't the right girl," is all Dan seems inclined to say. His face is expressionless, but the light in his eyes is wild and fey and he's fidgeting in his seat - probably fighting the urge to go outside and ring whatever-her-name was and plead for one more chance, which it's another of Casey's jobs to keep him from doing - picking at the label on his beer with a chipped and bitten fingernail, tapping his fingers in a restless, staccato beat on the table top, the arm of his chair, the leg of his jeans, jittery, manic. It's enough to frighten any sane woman away.

Danny's girls never are the right girl. Casey suspects that Dan's holding out for too much: something impossible, unattainable, perhaps even wholly imaginary. Chimerical. He says so - well, no, he just says the 'they never are' part, the rest of it would make him sound altogether too much like a woman. Which he is not. He settles comfortably into the upholstery, nursing his own bottle. He's limiting himself to one; Lisa will have a fit if she thinks he's been out partying with his workmates. "You'll find someone," he says, with a confidence he doesn't really feel. "She's out there. Unless you're holding out for, you know, Sophia Loren …"

Dan gives him a withering look. "Yeah, Casey. Because I'm really hot for someone's grandma." And Casey has to admit, Dan has a point; his cultural references aren't necessarily the most up-to-the-minute.

"So who would be your perfect woman?" he wants to know, and Dan sits back, head cocked to one side, a thoughtful frown creasing the skin between his eyes. Casey reaches out a foot and kicks him under the table, and Dan's frown turns to a glare.

"Wrinkles," Casey points out. "You're a TV star, Danny. Got to think of these things."

Dan gives him another look. "Uh-huh." He goes back to thinking and at last, now perfectly straight-faced, says, "Miss Piggy."

Casey puts down the bottle with a thump. "Miss. Piggy."

"Yeah." Dan tips back his head, finishes his beer, puts the bottle next to Casey's and starts ticking off points on his fingers. "She's got it all. She's beautiful, she's smart, she's tough - "

"Danny, she's a pig!"

"Well …" Dan admits. He pauses to flash a smile at the waitress and order another drink. Casey declines. "… yeah."

"Plus," Casey adds, giving the matter a little thought - he can't imagine why, it hardly merits it, "there's Kermit to take into account."

"Kermit?" Dan snorts. "I could take him."

"You could take Kermit?"

Dan waves away Kermit and all his amphibian kin with an airy wave of his hand. "Well, he's a frog, you know?" Then he grins evilly. "Hey, what's green and red, and green and red, and green and red …?"

Casey winces. "Please don't ever tell Charlie that joke!"

"Besides," Dan goes on, "Kermit's not right for her."

Casey thinks that maybe tonight even just the one beer might have been one too many. "Not right for her?"

"You can tell." Dan speaks with the wisdom of one who has loved too often, too unwisely and in vain. "He's just not good enough."

"Huh." Casey considers it a little more. Muppet love. Well, who's he to judge? "They've been together for a long time, Danny."

"Doesn't mean a thing." Dan's voice is surprisingly emphatic, given that they are, after all, talking about bloody Muppets. "He's holding her back, keeping her down. She deserves better. Someone worthy of a woman - "

" - pig - "

" - a pig like that. Someone who'd try to make her happy." He reaches for his beer and gestures grandly with the bottle, which slops over his hand. "She deserves - "

" - you?"

" - me!"

"Huh," is all Casey can think of to say. "Well, good luck with that." He checks his watch. "I need to get home. It's getting late and, you know, Lisa - " He lets it hang.

"Yeah," Dan says, "I know." He glances up as Casey briefly lets a hand drop to his shoulder, squeezes once, gently, reassuringly; manages a smile. "I know. Thanks, man." And he watches Casey as he goes; watches for a long time, until the door swings and Casey's out of sight.

He wonders if Casey thinks they really have been talking about Muppets. Probably. Casey … is not the most insightful man in the world.

"Yeah," Dan says again, softly, under his breath. "Well. Good luck with that, Casey."

He orders another beer, and settles in for the night.

***


End file.
